So You Think You Can Dance 5, July 15 – Who's On the Hot Bangers and Mash Train?

This is always a very interesting part of the season, once we pare down to just ten dancers and they get paired up with difference dancers than the past five weeks. Sometimes people that looked really good turn out to be not so much anymore, once they’re paired with someone else that isn’t as good, and sometimes it’s an opportunity for someone else to shine even more, and they stick out as a star no matter who they’re paired with.

Tonight Debbie Allen joins the judging panel along with Mary Murphy and Nigel Lythgoe. Asked by Cat Deeley how he feels now that the judges won’t have any control anymore over who goes home and who stays, Nigel isn’t sure how she can ask a control freak like him how it feels to lose control. To have it be America’s Favorite Dancer, though, he’s very happy about that.

Mary knows any type of change will be difficult for the dancers, especially being paired with different dancers now, between size differences, chemistry, and lack of trust. Debbie is happy to be back on the panel and admits to throwing some Haagen-Das at the TV a few times watching the judging earlier in the competition. Yet, three of her top guys and three of her top ladies are still in the competition. She thinks the judges and America are getting it right, making it a very interesting time. Whoever leaves an impression on people’s mind after they have danced are the ones we should be voting for.

The top five girls learned a Bollywood routine with Nakul Dev Mahajan, and he says he’s looking for some intense energy from them. He warns them that they’ll sweat. They’ll even have authentic props, which I think he calls a latka, some type of a water pot, and it will add folk elements to the dance. Randi Evans knows it’s important to watch all the little details of what the choreographer is showing. Jeanine Mason is associating it only to a group number, as she thinks the piece will be better that way. Janette Manrara thinks it’s all about having a good time and putting on a good show. Melissa Sandvig likes the name Nakul gives them, Bollywood Bombshells. Kayla Radomski likes the high energy and that it’s really girly.

The Bollywood Bombshells dance to Dholna from the Pyar Ke Geet Sountrack. I’m not always impressed with the Bollywood number, and this one I don’t find necessarily impressive, but it is good and seems very authentic, with those latka pots adding to it. I also don’t see anyone that doesn’t do well or anyone that shines more than the others.

Nigel tells Nakul that he is cool, saying it was absolutely fantastic. He thinks he needs to apologize to all the other girls that have ever been on the show, as these five are some of the most beautiful girls he’s ever seen working together. He, too, can’t pick out one person that was working better than the others. To do this routine in such a short time was absolutely incredible and the costumes are fanstic. They are lacking nothing and are on his “hot bangers and mash train.” I guesss he doesn’t like tamales.

Mary calls this Bolly-Wow. This show has opened up so many doors and especially in bringing Bollywood to So You think You Can Dance, and she thnks Nakul is repsonsible for making this new and fresh. She also thinks these five are absolutely stunning, and she can see any of them in the final, as that’s how well they danced that.

Debbie calls it an amazing cultural fusion, as they inhaled the cultural style and dress. Their eyes and hands were going, and they articulated it so well. This is arguably the best top five group of ladies they’ve ever had on the show.

When Kayla picked a name out of the hat to be her next partner, she picked Evan Kasprzak. He’s very excited about it. She knows he has a unique style, and she thinks it’s cool to have a partner that no one else is like. He notes that she is the tallest girl, and he’s the shortest guy, which could pose a problem for ballroom, as then she’d be in heels. They’ll be doing Vienesse waltz with Tony Meredith and Melanie. She expects to see elegance and grace, yet compassion and brilliant dancing. They’re doing some work to hide the height difference. Melanie wants Evan to wear the heels and Kayla to wear the flats. He says he’ll dance like he’s 9 feet tall, and she says she’ll plié a lot.

Dancing to Kiss From a Rose by Seal, Kayla and Evan dance their waltz, and they’re really quite good togehter. The height is hidden somewhat in the fact that he’s wearing black and she red. That helps hide it that they’re not matching. It does look a bit odd when he lifts her, as she’s then towering over him ain all respects. Nonetheless, their lifts look great. She looks just as elegant as she did with Kupono Aweau.

Nigel is a little shocked, noting they look like the same height, and it turns out that Evan has indeed been given some heels, and Kayla isn’t wearing shoes at all, which couldnt’ be seen really as they danced. He tells them they looked fantastic, but says the issues he has are that he can see the difference between the Viennese Waltz and the fast waltz, and he personally would like to see a difference in it. Yet the way they danced it, it could have been a nightmare, but the lifts worked beautifully, and Evan was supportive and strong as a partner, and he loved Kayla’s lines.